3 Other Ways to Reach Peak Productivity (365 Days of Spirited Living — DAY 327)

“Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.”— Franz Kafka

Productivity doesn’t happen by accident. If you want to accomplish anything worthwhile, you won’t do so by merely thinking about it or being sporadic about it. Productivity increases by learning good habits that help us to reach that pinnacle of goal achievement. You must be committed, start out small, have a plan, be specific in your goals, and precise about what you will do to achieve them. Here are 3 other ways to help you reach peak productivity:

1. Do not deny truth.

People lie to themselves in a number of different ways. One of the reasons is because it is easier to deny facts, truth, and reality than it is to accept them. Some people lie to themselves outright by forcing themselves to believe something that is not true. Other people avoid dealing with facts altogether. Other people don’t ask for and receive feedback from supervisors and peers alike. Still, other people make excuses, yield to ego, and live in a world of false realities.

In the here and now, it is no doubt much more difficult to accept problems and negative situations without making excuses or trying to run from them. But productive people know that the more excuses one makes and the more one attempts to run away from reality, the more overwhelming life becomes and the less goals are reached and accomplished. It is important to understand that at any point in your journey, you will encounter problems and setbacks both internally and externally. A part of getting to productivity is accepting issues as they arise and dealing with them instead of lying to ourselves and running from them.

2. Multitasking is a big trick we play on our own minds.

In many books and self-help articles on productivity, multitasking is made to look like a skill that only a certain type of person possesses. However, no single person actually has the ability to multitask and get things done. Multitasking is more the sign of an extremely busy person than it is for a productive person. In fact, multitasking is known to decrease productivity. Those who are truly productive focus on one task at a time and do that task to the best of their ability until it is finished.

A huge part of being productive is being able to focus on one thing at a time and to do that one thing well. When you do one thing well and then another thing well and then another, it eventually adds up to a good deal of projects being accomplished. When we multitask, we limit our ability to focus and increase the time it takes to accomplish one goal. A singular focus results in the exact opposite.

3. Create the world you want to live in.

The thing we focus on the most is what will manifest in our lives. If you think everything is negative and can’t be done then you will most likely always find yourself facing one obstacle after another and never getting anything done. Not because that’s the way things are but because that is the way you make things out to be. A good source of productivity is being able to see a problem and work to find a solution to it. This way instead of becoming a victim to a situation, you become in control over it. We make ourselves weak or strong, miserable or wonderful by what we choose to think about and do. The level of work applied to it is always the same.

You will either worry a lot and always feel overwhelmed or you will control your life and direct yourself in the way you want to go. Each year, people make new resolutions and create new plans and strategies to be more or to do better. Productive people have a different mentality. Instead of aiming for new resolutions, plans or strategies, they aim to make a commitment. A solid commitment to the task at hand will always override a revised plan, a new strategy, and an easily broken resolution.